Driven says it's no Toro
Perhaps it is just self-defence against any fallout in the ad marketplace from the death of Toro. Perhaps it was dancing on Toro's grave. But Driven, a Canadian men's magazine, issued a press release yesterday to say why it is more successful than its now-dead "primary competitor":The failure of other men's lifestyle publications in the Canadian magazine marketplace is further validation of Driven Magazine's editorial concept. Driven attracts affluent male readers with its unique combination of fashion, technology, travel, lifestyle and automotive content.The release quoted founding partner and editor-in-chief Michael La Fave:
"We've always been confident that men want to read about what's new in fashion, technology, watches and cars. The failure of our primary competitor does not lend credence to the theory that men won't read about products...only that despite offering a quality publication, Toro failed to assess exactly what men are interested in."Driven, which is published out of Toronto, uses exactly the same circulation method as Toro: 150,000 copies circulated 6 times a year to selected recipients of the Globe and Mail. Plus copies on Air Canada and on newsstands. Its full page rate is $13,925. Editorially, it is much more of a "toys for the boys" book, with less emphasis on journalism. And that may be their point.
posted by D. B. Scott at
11:16 am
12 Comments:
Never heard of it.
But I'm a woman who happened to find Toro a pretty good read.
"…only that despite offering a quality publication, Toro failed to assess exactly what men are interested in."
What evidence does Driven have that Toro's readers were not interested in the editorial package where as Driven got it right? And, what does that have to do with it folding?
The word on Toro has been that despite selling a lot of ads and creating a slick magazine, it couldn't sell enough advertising to sustain itself and there was not enough circulation revenue to rely on. Some circulators suspect that a controlled model may be the problem as with a controlled book, the magazine often ends up in the hands of people who have no interest in it. So it stands to reason that since Toro and Driven have the same circulation model, they would have similar relationships with their readers.
Seems to me he is grasping at straws to defend his magazine.
Well, Driven will never be accused of being a good read. Saying it's not as journalistic as Toro is incredibly kind--it's a third-rate gadget brochure. The paper may be top-quality, but the content is far from that. And now it turns out they're not very classy either--hard to convince people you've got the right dance moves when your audience can see you're dancing on someone else's grave...
I don't know about you, but I just can't get enough of "fashion, technology, watches and cars." Especially watches; I'm such a busy guy.
Driven is no Toro? No shit.
Driven? God, even the name is sad - Their lame and predictable response is typical and expected. Michael and his team seem to be good at addressing would be advertisers with pot shots but perhaps he could make better use of his time by addressing Driven itself. The editorial content is completely lost (Fashion and watches - WOW, slow down, that's fucking revolutionary), the photography and art direction is second rate at best and it seems they can only sell ads to those that they can poach off of the death of another magazine.
As I would with a human, I judge a magazine by it's integrity and and in this case I would give the boys (because c'mon, that's what they really are) at Driven a big fat zero.
See you sucka's at the NMA's - oh so sorry, forgot you didn't even get nominated.
again.
If Mr. La Fave would like potential advertisers to know how many (or few) readers he has, he may want to consider submitting Driven to the scrutiny of the Print Measurement Bureau. Toro rather bravely did this right out of the gate and its readership grew between years one and two by almost 50%, the largest gain of any measured magazine in the country. Ownership may have run out of steam, but Toro's RPC will likely be north of 2.5 when the new study is released next month - a long way from the .8 it had after its launch.
Would Mr. La Fave's innovative vision of "fashion, technology, watches, and cars" be able to come within sniffing distance of these numbers? I'd bet the house that he won't risk exposing the truth to all those advertisers he was losing to Toro.
I can assure you that no one in our offices is 'dancing on Toro's grave'. No one here considers it a positive event to lose an award-winning Canadian magazine.
We do believe, however, that it is important for Canadian readers and advertisers to know that there are Canadian men's lifestyle books who are successfully navigating these turbulent times - hence our release.
Regards,
Michael La Fave
michael.lafave@drivenmag.com
if toro were willing to whore themselves out to advertisers, they very easily would have 'navigated the turbulent times' as well. unfortunately, toro risked death to maintain their editorial integrity, and i for one, would rather see Toro no more, than see it diminished to the promiscuously laid-out brothel that thrives in Driven's pages.
Driven? Keep bending over and you'll no doubt navigate to even better times.
Driven is very popular around my office - a professional services firm. Great content and photos about accomplished people, beautiful places and the latest fashion, cars, gadgets, etc.
If you don't like consumer magazines as a whole then that, of course, is your prerogative, but I wouldn't criticize a consumer magazine for its failure to include hard-hitting journalism, as that is not it's goal. If you want more substantial content the magazine comes conveniently wrapped in a newspaper!
I read the Driven press release. I don't know why there's such a negative reaction to it on this blog. There was nothing malicious about Toro in the release - which in fact was referred to as "a quality publication".
"If you want more substantial content the magazine comes conveniently wrapped in a newspaper!"
Couldn't have put it better myself.
I've only seen a few issues of both Driven and Toro, mainly because I don't live in the print "hotbed" of Toronto, but it seems to me that these two magazines shouldn't be compared in any capacity other than the fact that they are Canadian-made magazines aimed at young men. One has an overtly consumerism-based focus and the other seemed to be a general interest/entertainment-type publication; perhaps something for the guy who grew up reading Maxim?
Now I'm not totally sure what Toro's "editorial integrity" was exactly. Maybe someone could help me, but I don't think editorial integrity is defined by interviews with actors or musicians, or pictures of hot broads brandishing their wares, or tips effectively on how to make my girlfriend happy. That appears simply to be advertising some combination of celebrity and sex and whatever else happened to be in the issue at the time.
That said, Mr. La Fave's mentioning Toro by name didn't exemplify much editorial integrity either.
Any day a Canadian magazine dies is a sad day.
"Driven is very popular around my office - a professional services firm. Great content and photos about accomplished people, beautiful places and the latest fashion, cars, gadgets, etc."
Geez. How many watches did La Fave promise you to chime in with this astroturf?
Look, Driven is what it is and I've never spent more than a minute flipping through it when arrives in The Globe. I look for writing and editorial ingenuity and I don't find it there. But if they are indeed succeeding, then congrats to them. I used to write for Toro and I never worked with a better group of people. The magazine aimed to mix the typical male stuff with really high quality writing, great art direction, and stories that could be challenging and surprising.
Given it's focus and resulting edit costs, I'm sure Driven costs a lot less to produce and probably is making money. So maybe they do have a better financial model; but I don't think that's the same as a winning formula. If they submit to a circ audit like Toro then they can start making claims. The truth is, we all have no idea what their READERS think, or how many actually pick up the magazine and read it.
Bottom line: Driven is getting driven into the ground because the release they put out showed a lack of class. A lot of magazine people are disappointed about losing Toro. This release has given us/them something to vent about.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home